Chapter 126: The Apology of the White Silk Knight

West Town, besides the imperial capital and the chaotic Wolfsburg, was the most important place for accepting missions and leveling up in the Bal Empire.

If the game plot developed to the point where a war broke out between the western demon domain and the Bal Empire, it would be the first choice for leveling up.

And in this town.

Besides Christine’s orphanage, the adventurer’s guild here, which was allied with the government of the Bal Empire, was also quite important.

It was a good place to farm experience, money, and reputation.

In addition, the Salvation Church also had a cadre near West Town.

But considering that the structure of the Salvation Church and the situation in the game had changed too much, Hall didn’t know if his memory was still useful.

So the person he least wanted to see was actually an old man.

That old man’s name was Thorne.

He was a blacksmith in West Town.

When the player controlled the heroine’s team to West Town and their favorability with the church was not enough, and their reputation had reached a certain level, the system would guide the player to Thorne’s place.

If the player didn’t go to Thorne, after staying in West Town for more than three days, he would come to their door.

If they continued to ignore him, they would be attacked by the church.

At this point, if they continued to ignore the attacks, the enemies’ levels would get higher and higher, until the player couldn’t handle it.

Then Thorne would come to help the player with his weapon.

A legendary-grade blade named [Wind’s Soul].

It was very strange.

Anyone would find it strange that an unknown old blacksmith could forge a legendary-grade weapon.

So many players thought this old man’s identity was not simple.

So they started the mission, but the old man also gave a lot.

If you simply completed a few monster-killing and church-stance-answering questions, and challenged any lord above level eighty or an elite above level ninety, he would give the [Wind’s Soul] as a reward to the player.

Although a legendary-grade weapon was not weak, a player who could challenge a level eighty lord or a level ninety elite would surely think, “Damn, I’m already fighting monsters of this level, and you’re giving me this? The main DPS can’t even upgrade their equipment.”

But the [Wind’s Soul] was not only a legendary-grade blade, but also a one-time consumable.

After being consumed, it would roll up a great storm, lowering the enemy’s dual speed while increasing the wielder’s dual speed for a short period of time.

As for the [Wind’s Soul] itself, it would turn into a [Wind Spirit] and return to Thorne.

And a few months later, when the player visited again, they could get the [Wind’s Soul] again.

And, as the mission with Thorne progressed, the player would get a skill book for Dual Wielding up to LV9.

This was very amazing.

Dual Wielding LV9, if there were no rare auxiliary items, only Sophia had a chance to learn it when she broke through to level ninety.

Usually, it was enough for the heroines to have Dual Wielding LV7 to dominate.

Because the level of Dual Wielding represented the grade of the secondary weapon that could be carried.

LV7 corresponded to a master-grade weapon, and the auxiliary effect of a master-grade weapon was usually good.

It was equivalent to adding the attributes and effects of another weapon out of thin air.

LV8 corresponded to legendary, and LV9 corresponded to epic.

With LV9 Dual Wielding, it was basically equivalent to top-tier dual wielding, because mythic-grade weapons were usually bound to the heroine.

Looking at it this way, the Thorne side quest was quite good, and could greatly increase the player’s combat power.

But the drawback was that after starting the Thorne side quest, the favorability with the church would continue to decrease.

Many of Thorne’s missions were also to have the player investigate the church’s secrets, such as the research on the power of the Demon God, the list of high-level officials of the Judgment Bureau, and so on.

Anyway, Hall was not on good terms with the church.

Hall felt that in his current state, being at odds with the church was a bit of an extreme challenge.

So he had to avoid Thorne when he came to West Town.

But this tall and thin old man, wearing cloth clothes and a straw hat, was standing on the platform, looking like he was waiting for someone.

In the game, Thorne had no relatives and was a lonely old man.

But from observing the game text and the favorability system, Thorne’s initial highest favorability was with Christine.

He had special dialogues with Christine.

After all, he and Christine were also from the same hometown.

Today, the other party had appeared here.

He was probably also waiting for Christine.

“Sigh… is Christine going to start this big side quest?”

As long as the player did this side quest, it would basically last until the end of the game.

It was more than ten times more ridiculous than the length of the desert book and the forest book in a certain dark game.

Hall was very numb.

If Christine started this side quest in West Town, it would surely lower her favorability with the church.

Wouldn’t she directly become an undercover agent and take the route of resisting the church?

In the game, it was difficult to get a happy ending even if you replenished her magic to death.

After thinking about it, he decided that he must make Christine avoid Thorne.

“We’ve arrived, William. Let’s get off the train.”

Christine, in a pure white Saintess robe, came over.

She had even dressed up a little before the train stopped, tying her golden hair into a ponytail, looking pure and beautiful.

What was even more deadly was that when she invited Hall, she had deliberately placed her left hand on her chest.

This made the not-so-obvious undulations there subconsciously locked by his gaze.

As a man, he would have some…

“Oh my, my dear knight, where are you looking?”

“I’m looking at your left hand. It’s just a normal aesthetic appreciation. It would probably be better if it were a little bigger.”

Hall’s direct words made Christine’s cheeks blush.

She had observed the way Hall had interacted with the girls these past few months and had summed up her experience.

She had thought Hall would dodge.

She hadn’t expected him to respond head-on, and even say she was small.

“What’s so good about being bigger?”

It was a rather serious question.

“It feels better to touch when it’s bigger.”

“…Then you come and touch it, and see if it feels good.”

Christine’s statement had actually gone through some psychological preparation.

Although she had flirted with Hall with her small feet at the tea party, she had never touched a part like her small peaches.

She herself hadn’t even touched it much.

“Really?”

Hall thought to himself that since it had come to this, he couldn’t be too cowardly.

“Really. Hurry up. When we go out later, you won’t have a chance.”

Christine raised her eyebrows.

But from her long, drawn-out breath, he could tell she was also a little nervous.

The black-haired youth thought for a moment and decided to reach out his hand.

But just as his hand was about to touch Christine’s small chest, a faint voice came from behind.

“Young Master, what are you doing?”

Turning his head, Lov was half a meter behind him, her eyes staring at his outstretched right hand.

“That was close. Good thing it didn’t explode.”

After getting off the train and arriving at the somewhat old platform of West Town.

Hall let out a sigh of relief in his heart.

And Christine had already started talking with Archbishop Malik, who was waiting here, and the local church of West Town.

Lov still seemed a little angry.

Because if she hadn’t appeared just now, Hall would probably have really touched her.

At this moment, he was observing a corner of the platform.

At the position where the train had just entered the station, the old man Thorne had already left.

However, before he left, Hall had met Thorne’s gaze.

He could clearly feel the gaze that the other party had cast.

He had glanced at him, and also at Christine.

“There should be other places. The violent plot shouldn’t just be scattered around. Since Malik has come to pick them up, I’ll go to the town to look for clues first.”

In the adventurer’s cafe in West Town.

Hall was holding the first-hand, absolutely detailed and reliable information of the past twenty years that he had just bought from the owner for a hundred gold coins.

Mainly because after transmigrating, the game’s plot could not be fully trusted.

If he could trust it, he wouldn’t have spent money to buy information.

And because the owner of this cafe was a specialist in selling information, Hall spending a lot of money to buy the historical information of West Town was also something that could be sold to others.

So Hall added another hundred gold coins as a hush fee.

So much so that the owner saw that Hall was not simple and didn’t ask much.

“Holy Light Era, March 1014. A strange phenomenon appeared in West Town. The previous generation’s Saintess held a blessing ceremony here.”

“Holy Light Era, June 1014. A great war broke out between the demon army of the western demon domain and the Bal Empire in an area of about three hundred miles around West Town. Because the emperor of Bal launched an attack with a hundred thousand troops, two bloodline princes appeared in the war. The initial battle was quite smooth.”

“Holy Light Era, August 1014. The vampire empress appeared, and the demon army counterattacked.”

“Holy Light Era, October 1014. The two sides fought to a draw, and this war ended.”

“Holy Light Era, January 1, 1015. The Saintess’s blessing took effect. The moon was clear that night, and countless white feathers descended. The physical condition of the adventurers who had died in the previous year because of the war gradually recovered.”

“Holy Light Era, 1016 to 1017. A few rather tragic battles seemed to have taken place near West Town. The identities of the two sides of the battle are unknown.”

“Holy Light Era, July 1018. The Holy Train opened to traffic, and West Town became the most important transfer station between the imperial capital and Sunset City.”

“Holy Light Era, 1020. In this year, important figures of the church successively visited West Town.”

“Holy Light Era, 1023. The church established a branch of the Judgment Bureau in West Town, which was opposed by the emperor of Bal.”

“Holy Light Era, October 1024. The local branch of the Judgment Bureau was abolished.”

“Holy Light Era, December 1024. The orphanage funded by the church was destroyed by a fire. It is said that many big shots from the church had secretly visited.”

“Holy Light Era, September 1030. A conflict is suspected to have occurred between the high echelons of the church and the Salvation Church locally.”

“Holy Light Era, December 1030. The church sealed off the ruins of the orphanage. Some homeless adventurers who wanted to stay there were expelled.”

“Holy Light Era, November 1031. Someone witnessed a pure-blooded vampire active near the orphanage and had a conflict with a specialist from the church.”

“Holy Light Era, January 1032. The church lifted the blockade of the orphanage. It is said that one of the selected Saintess Candidates was born here, and they began to rebuild.”

Then Hall read it again and found no other information he wanted.

Regarding the war between Bal and the vampires, it was the same as in the game.

Players all speculated that it was because of this war that the Holy Train track was built into the demon domain.

The deviation appeared in the time of the orphanage fire.

It was about ten months earlier.

This deviation must have been man-made.

It could have been from the church, or from other forces.

But in any case, the person who set the fire must have known that Christine’s divinity was very high and wanted to take her away.

But this deviation must also have something to do with him.

“Could it be that I set this fire?”

Hall had a ridiculous guess.

He wasn’t stupid.

If he had waited for the fire to happen naturally, then Christine would surely have been taken away by the church.

She couldn’t have become one of the Seven Sages.

Or this fire was set by the people of the Salvation Church, whom he had taught.

“…But I didn’t have to kill Christine’s sister. Then if Christine’s memory of the fire is fake, her sister should still be alive…”

Hall had another terrifying guess.

“Damn it, could it be Mandosha?”

After so much contact, he knew that that charming Mandosha still took good care of Christine.

Sometimes she would even joke, for example, the blessing Christine had given to his family on New Year’s Eve.

He started to cry again.

Parousia was very unnatural, and Mandosha seemed to have predicted it.

“If Mandosha Flower is a Sage of the Salvation Church, and now Christine is a Saintess Candidate of the Church, the two are mortal enemies. In Christine’s memory, if Mandosha Flower is dead, it seems to make sense.”

He was brainstorming.

He was about to deduce what he had done before he lost his memory.

“In the game, Mandosha Flower appears very few times and almost never makes an enemy of the heroine. Especially in Christine’s route, she was there for the important mission of contacting Ye Wangxue in the early stages, but there was no follow-up. It must be that she was unwilling to be an enemy of Christine. Looking at it this way, my deduction should be correct.”

He could almost be sure that it was he or he had incited the people of the Salvation Church to cause the fire early and take the two sisters away.

So at this time, Hall went to the front desk, and the owner saw him and asked.

“How about it, guest? Are you satisfied with the information I gave you?”

“It’s alright. By the way, how many people died in the orphanage fire eleven years ago?”

“Ah… there should have been no one who died. It was snowing that day, and the nun was playing with the children in the town. When they came back, they saw the fire.”

“Oh, I see.”

Hall nodded thoughtfully.

Then he took the information and left the cafe, planning to go to the outskirts to observe the rebuilt orphanage from the outside.

“Lady Christine, everything is tidied up. Why do you look so tired? Is it because you’ve been transferring trains and traveling recently?”

Maria had just made Christine’s bed and then washed some fruit and cut it into a fruit platter to serve.

But she found Christine holding her forehead with one hand, her face not quite normal.

“I’m fine, Maria.”

“Lady Christine… why don’t you take a nap? The blessing ceremony is not in a hurry. Most of the residents of West Town are wealthy. You’ve also seen Archbishop Malik’s recent planning document. The required level of blessing is much higher than all the previous ones.”

The young nun was very anxious.

“Where’s Hall?”

“Him?”

Hearing Christine’s question, Maria was a little indignant, “Where could he be idle? He left alone as soon as he saw that Archbishop Malik could protect you. I don’t know where he has gone now.”

“Oh… let’s go out for a walk too. I feel like my heart has been restless since I came to this small town.”

This was the truth.

The blonde girl felt her heart was beating very fast, and her mind was tired because of it.

“Alright, Lady Christine. Maybe it’s because it’s been a long time since you’ve been back to your hometown.”

Maria said.

“That’s true. A strange sense of familiarity is swirling in my mind.”

Christine looked out the window.

The architectural style of West Town was quite ordinary.

Except for this church and the Adventurers’ Guild, most of the buildings were low, no more than five meters tall, and the number of bungalows was ridiculously large.

The vegetation in the town was also very scattered, and it didn’t look like many people took care of it.

Some of the adventurers who came here to work were those who couldn’t survive in their own country and came here for money.

Now only a small part of them really had an adventurous spirit, wanting to explore the demon domain and challenge the lords in the demon domain.

“Alright then. After all, it’s Lady Christine’s hometown. Let’s go out for a walk!”

Maria hesitated because she always felt it was not very safe.

‘Damn Hall, where on earth did he run off to at this time?’

“Sigh… not a single trace of a vampire. I heard Christine arrived today. I’ll go and ask her about the situation later.”

Himan was now also on the streets of West Town.

Compared to Hall and Christine, who each had their own goals.

She was a bit like a headless fly.

She had been here for three or four days, but had gained nothing.

The only gain was that she could be sure that there must be members of the Bal royal family who were cooperating with the vampires.

But she couldn’t guess who it was, and she couldn’t continue to investigate.

And these past few days, she had spent money like water on various kinds of intelligence.

Many information dealers had said that their information was unique, super rare, and of high value.

But she only found out after she bought it.

It did indeed meet two of the three labels.

The only one that didn’t was the last one.

“If Hall were to do it, what would he do?”

The somewhat tired white-stockinged female knight ordered a cup of black tea in a teahouse by the roadside.

But she was immediately startled by this thought that had subconsciously arisen.

“It’s all his fault for suddenly disappearing. If he were with me… I wouldn’t have made no progress by now.”

To cover up the thought of seeing things from Hall’s perspective, Himan began to mutter to herself.

It was annoying.

The more she thought, the more annoyed she got.

Thinking of Hall was annoying.

So annoying!

She was in no mood to drink black tea.

She had to keep herself busy so she wouldn’t think of Hall.

As soon as she was idle, this kind of thought that made her angry would pop up.

So she paid the bill and left.

But before she had taken two steps, she saw a figure in her vision that shouldn’t be here at all.

“Lov, what are you doing here?”

“Ah, Miss Himan!”

Lov, who was buying rare monster meat to cook for Hall in the evening, was tapped on the shoulder from behind.

When she turned around, she was so scared she almost dropped the bag in her hand.

“Himan, what are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?”

But Himan asked Lov first.

“Ah… I… I…”

“Where’s Hall?”

“Ah, the Young Master, the Young Master he…”

Lov was really stunned by the sudden appearance of Himan.

She stammered.

What should she do?

If Himan found out that she and Hall had run away, let alone living a life of a master and servant with Hall in the future, she wouldn’t even be able to stay by Hall’s side peacefully.

Lov knew that Himan could not tolerate a grain of sand in her eyes.

“Do you know where Hall went? I’ve been looking for him for half a month.”

“I… I’m not too sure either, Miss Himan.”

“Isn’t he with you?”

Himan looked at Lov.

It wasn’t that she trusted Lov that much.

But no matter how she thought about it, that guy Hall was unlikely to have brought Lov to West Town for a tour.

What was there to play with here?

Looking at the monsters and beasts?

So she subconsciously felt that Hall was not here.

“Yes, Miss Himan. The Young Master is not with me. I’ve been alone since I left home…”

Lov began to make things up on the spot.

“What are you doing alone in such a dangerous small town?”

Himan was not that easy to fool.

But in her heart, she still felt that it must not have been easy for Lov to stay in such a small town.

“Ah, I… actually… sigh… Miss Himan, I’m actually also looking for the Young Master…”

“You’re also looking for Hall?”

The white-stockinged knight was very surprised.

“Yes, Miss Himan. When the Young Master left that morning, he said he was on a permanent vacation, that he didn’t want to go back to Saint Louis. He was very resolute. I didn’t dare to ask the Young Master why he didn’t want to go back to Saint Louis, but after the Young Master left, I felt it was not right and wanted to persuade him, so I hurriedly chased after him.”

Lov sorted out her thoughts.

Anyway, she had heard long ago that Hall wanted to leave Saint Louis.

The story based on this topic was quite good.

So she continued, “But I couldn’t catch up with the Young Master. If the Young Master wanted to leave, I… I couldn’t do anything about it. So I thought of coming to the Bal Kingdom to find Miss Christine and have her do a divination for the Young Master, to find his whereabouts through divination.”

She looked like she was about to cry, “Sigh, Miss Himan. The Young Master is the only son of the Faxtius family. If he really hates the days in Saint Louis, what should we do?”

“I…”

Himan was directly stunned after hearing this and couldn’t interrupt at all.

She remembered her mood when she first heard that Hall was leaving Saint Louis.

That feeling came back.

“Miss Himan, why do you think the Young Master wants to leave Saint Louis? So many girls in Saint Louis like him, and he has status, and his reputation has been reversed. What else can make him unhappy? What can make him so unhappy that he wants to leave?”

“I…”

Himan had originally wanted to comfort Lov after hearing her words.

But Lov’s words stabbed her heart.

She thought to herself, could the reason Hall wanted to leave Saint Louis be because of her?

After all, Hall’s mother had died early, and his father was stationed on the border all year round.

His older sister was relatively close to Hall, and the only one who could manage Hall.

The only person who was always managing Hall was her.

And she had misunderstood Hall for three years.

Every time she met with Hall during those three years, she always spoke to him in a stern tone.

Although Hall was always too lazy to bother with her and didn’t listen to her, thinking about it, if someone spoke to her in a stern tone every day, she wouldn’t like to bother with them either.

“Sigh… could it be, could it be because of me?”

Himan was very sad in her heart.

The reason Hall had left Saint Louis was very likely because she had made him unhappy every day.

She understood.

A while ago, the other noble young ladies in Saint Louis had also said that she was too strict with Hall before.

But due to her pride, Himan had never properly apologized to Hall.

She had no chance to apologize to him.

Hearing Lov explain the reason.

She also knew what she had done.

“Miss Himan, why are you crying…”

Lov pretended to be surprised, but seeing Himan’s sad face, she felt very happy.

Because she knew that the reason the Young Master wanted to leave Saint Louis so much must have something to do with Himan.

Hmph, hmph, good and evil have their rewards!

Serves you right for not cherishing the Young Master.

When she had just entered the Faxtius house, Lov had always felt that Himan was Mrs. Faxtius.

What was Ye Wangxue’s business?

“It’s all my fault, Lov… it’s my fault for being too strict with Hall every day, so he couldn’t stand it and wanted to leave. After all, he is still very outstanding, and outstanding people always have a sense of pride. I should have put myself in his shoes and thought for him. If it were me, being misunderstood by my relatives for three years…”

The white-stockinged knight suddenly paused here.

Then, as if she had made up her mind, she said solemnly.

“Lov, after I’ve dealt with my business, I’ll take you with me to find Hall. If… if I can see him again, I, his cousin, will surely apologize to him properly!”